Japanese Recipes for Healthy Living

Archive for the ‘Seafood’ Category

This garlic chive pancake is originally Korean dish, but it’s very popular in Japan. It’s very easy to cook and contains a lot of vegetables. This recipe is my version, and it might be different from the Korean one, but it’s very tasty.

Korean Pancake, Chidimi

<Ingredients>

8 oz garlic chive, cut into 2 inches
1 carrot, julienned
2 tbsp pickled cut ginger (see below)
8 medium shrimps, peeled and cut into 3 or 4 pieces
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup water
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp fish powder (option, see below)
vegetable oil

(For the dipping sauce— mix up all the ingredients below)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp chili garlic sauce

Chili Garlic Sauce

<How to cook>

1. Mix flour, water, salt and fish powder in a big bowl.
2. Put garlic chive, carrot, pickled ginger and shrimp in the bowl, and mix them up.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Ladle 1 cup batter into skillet to make an 5-inch pancake. Cook about 3-4 minutes , then turn over and cook until other side is golden, 3-4 minutes more.
4. Serve warm with dipping sauce.

ASIAN INGREDIENTS

garlic chive, nira

Garlic Chive——I’ve never seen this vegetable in American grocery stores. You can find it in Korean stores, Japanese stores and Chinese stores. According to about.com, “Garlic chives pack a major nutritional punch for a mere 30 calories per 100 grams. Low in fat and high in dietary fiber and protein, they contain high amounts of Vitamin C and carotene, and are a good source of calcium. They also contain Vitamin B1 and B2. In Chinese medicine, garlic chives are considered to be a yin or warming food.”

pickled ginger

Pickled ginger——– You can find this at Asian grocery stores and some  American grocery stores. There is also pink ginger that usually is served at sushi restaurants. For this recipe, red one is suitable.

kezuriko

Fish powder (kezuriko)———– This can be found only at Japanese grocery stores as long as I know. It is powder form of dried, fermented and smoked skipjack tuna(bonito). This powder doesn’t have any chemical, which means no MSG.

I know this is not for everybody, but I love sea urchin. If it’s not expensive, I can eat as much as 10 pieces of sea urchin at a sushi restaurant.

Sea urchin looks like this.

sea urchin, uni

It’s eaten in many parts of the world. In Japan, they eat it as Sashimi or Sushi with soy sauce and wasabi. It is kind of scary looking, so I didn’t try this until I turned 18. But once I tasted it, I totally fell in love with it. It’s so creamy and goes well with soy sauce and wasabi.

At a sushi restaurant, it costs at least $6 for 2 pieces.  It can cost as much as $12 to $15 for 2 pieces. But if you buy it at a Japanese grocery store, you can get it for a very reasonable price.

For example, I got this much for less than $ 4.00!  And I made 4 pieces of sea urchin sushi out of it.

sea urchin, uni

Do you want to make sea urchin sushi? Here is the recipe!

1. Make sushi rice following my recipe.

2. Cut nori (dried seaweed sheet) like the picture below.

Nori, Dried Seaweed Sheet

3. Pick up about 2 tbsp sushi rice in one hand and shape into a oval shape.

Sushi rice oval shape

4. Put nori around the sushi rice. See the picture below.

making sushi rice ball

5. Pick a spoonful of sea urchin and put it on top of the sushi rice.

putting sea urchin

Enjoy your sea urchin sushi! I hope you enjoy this Japanese food recipe.

This simple salad is so light and delicious. It is a really good side dish. I like this salad with wakame (seaweed), but it’s hard to find good seaweed in American grocery stores. When I have time to go to a Japanese grocery store, I get wakame preserved with salt. You can find dried wakame too, but dried one doesn’t taste as good as the one with salt. When I get that kind of wakame next time, I will show you how it looks like.

Anyway, today’s salad doesn’t have wakame, but it still tastes so good.
4 cucumbers, sliced
1 Tbsp salt
1/4 pounds coocked shrimp, chopped
1/4 pounds imitation crab (chopped or broken up)

(for the dressing)
1 Tbsp soy sauce
3 Tbsp rice vinegar
Lime juice from 2 limes
1 Tbsp sesame
1 tsp sugar

1. Put the sliced cucumber and salt in a big bowl and mix them well. Leave it for 10 minutes. Squeeze out excess moisture by hand.
2. Combine all the ingredients for the dressing and mix well.
3. Add shrimp and imitation crab into the bowl, and pour the dressing. Mix up well, and add sesame.